Week 1

Challenge Highlights I’ve been extremely impressed with everyone’s effort through the first week! Remember that you don’t have to be perfect. Your goal should just be steady progress at a pace you can sustain. Ever started a WOD way too aggressively? How did that pan out for you? It’s exactly the same here. Pace yourself and stick to the plan you created in your goal sheet. Aim to make a small improvement each week and you’ll be shocked at both how much easier it is and how much better the changes stick. Don’t think of this as a temporary situation that you just have to “survive” for 6 weeks. You’re setting yourself up for the rest of your life. You’re creating a healthy lifestyle that is easy to live with.

Thank you to everyone that is participating in the conversations! It’s been really great to see the support for each other. We’re all in this together. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or share knowledge with others. We’re stronger together.

Everyone has done a great job posting their scores. I just ask that you please post in the correct threads (check the dates) and include dates on the daily posts. It’s a lot for me to keep track of!

I did notice some folks falling prey to processed food marketing which prompted me to create the following article...

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At the end of week 1 we only have 15 points separating 1st place from 8th place!

NEW YOU NEWS Scores | Highlights | Tips | Recipes

Week 1

Food Labels are Liars Sometimes Clickbaity title, I know. I guess it worked though if you’re reading this. The truth is, these marketing gurus are very good at selling you garbage food that you think is good for you, at least at some level. Here’s the thing, no matter how healthy the packaging/labeling makes a product seem, you’re eating a processed product. Real food doesn’t come in fancy packaging. Real food doesn’t even have a nutrition label. It doesn’t need one! Do you need someone to tell you what’s in broccoli? It’s just broccoli. So if you’re reading a package or nutrition facts, they’ve done something to it and the labels never tell the whole story. They’ve got all kinds of tricks they’re allowed to use to make their product appear better than it actually is. Let’s break it down...

1. Hiding Added Sugar

Have you ever seen a label that lists sugar as an ingredient but when you look at the sugar content for a serving it says 0g? How does that work? Well, I’ll tell you. They’re allowed to round down to 0g of sugar if it has less than 0.5g of sugar per serving. That may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but they’re really good at coming up with serving sizes that perfectly fit this criteria so that they can round down to 0g. Most people won’t pay much attention to the serving size. They’ll just see 0g of sugar and then think they can have as much as they want. The sugar is in there and it adds up faster than you think.

They’re also really good at adding sugar without saying it’s sugar. Here are some examples: • Anything that ends in “ose” such as fructose or dextrose.• Syrups, like high-fructose corn syrup, malt syrup, maple syrup, agave syrup• Nectars, like pear nectar and peach nectar• Juices, like fruit juice and cane juice• Honey

Yes, honey is added sugar. I don’t care what the infographic told you on Facebook about honey being some sort of superfood. Don’t kid yourself into thinking honey is fine to add to food in place of sugar. It still has basically the same effect on your health.

2. Sugar Alcohols

Watch out for sugar alcohols too. These are especially sneaky since you don’t metabolize these when you eat them (similar to fiber). Products will market using the term “net carbs.” Basically

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Staff Leaderboard

Pretty tight race among the staff members too! Except Tyler.

Facebook App Tips

Let’s be honest, the app is kind of a piece of crap. Some users have noted that they have trouble finding some of the points threads. They’re all in there, but sometimes Facebook thinks it’s fun to hide them from you. If you can’t find something, try a desktop browser and everything should show up.

Accountability Buddy Tips

When meeting with your buddy, make sure to communicate how your buddy can help you out. As you run into issues, reach out to your buddy right away. Don’t wait a whole week to talk with them about everything that went wrong. Stay in touch throughout the week.

Week 1

this means they can subtract the sugar alcohol carbs from the total carbs to make a product appear to be low carb (see Halo Top or Rebel ice cream). Technically, that’s correct. The problem is your gut doesn’t like sugar alcohols. They typically cause bloating and stomach pain as they ferment in your gut. Their products will also be lower calorie than comparable products but this doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Calories are only one piece of the puzzle. Do you really believe that low calorie ice cream is what you should be eating to improve your health? If it sounds too good to be true...

Here are some common sugar alcohols:• Xylitol• Erythritol• Sorbitol• Maltitol

3. Highlighting Health Facts to Distract You

Finally, they like to try to make their unhealthy products appear healthy by highlighting irrelevant nutrition facts or by slapping buzzwords all over the place. Organic sugar is not good for you. It’s still just added sugar. Fat free or non-GMO doesn’t equate to being healthy either. Don’t fall for these tricks. Here’s a prime example:

Fat free marshmallows! Oh and they’re low sodium too! Nothing to worry about except for the fact that they’re basically pure sugar...

It’s not always this obvious though. Many times it can actually appear that their product is healthy at first. Take a closer look and you’ll probably find it’s much worse than they led you to believe. Let's look at Fiber One bars.

Just from the name, most people already assume it's healthy because fiber. Fiber is a whole topic but I'll just leave it at: fiber doesn't equal healthy. The packaging highlights the protein content, the net carbs, and the sugar content. To the untrained eye, it could appear these are a decent snack (they're really not though even just from a macro standpoint). It's very low protein (and we still don't know the quality of the protein) compared to the amount of carbs (even net carbs). This is a recipe for gaining body fat. Plus it's got some added sugar which we always want to avoid, but some might justify it since it's "only" 2g. Let's go a little deeper and check out the nutrition label to get the rest of the story.

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Week 1

Ok so things are much worse than we first thought! Basically the entire ingredient list is garbage but let's rattle off some of the worst ingredients:

• Soy Protein Isolate• Erythritol (sugar alcohol)• Palm Oil• Enriched Wheat Flour• Sugar• Corn Syrup (sugar)• Soy Lecithin• Maltodextrin (this is sugar)• Yellow Corn Flour• Chocolate (more sugar in here)• Fructose (yeah sugar)• Artificial Flavor

I had trouble not listing everything on the entire label honestly. There's no other way to put it... these things are complete trash. Yet they are positioning themselves as a healthy snack. This is not an isolated case either. This is the norm for these processed food products. Start reading labels and you'll find plenty of other examples. Don't be a victim to their marketing.  

4. Artificial Sweeteners

Ok so now we’re avoiding added sugar. Great! Let’s replace it with artificial sweeteners! No! Don’t do that! Just because it’s not sugar doesn’t mean it’s suddenly good for you. We largely don’t understand the effect these artificial sweeteners have on our bodies. Call me paranoid, but I don’t trust them. I’d rather eat foods that contain natural sugar (not added sugar) than eat something with artificial sweeteners. Companies use them because they’re cheap and they can market their “sugar-free” products. It’s just another ploy to make a profit. They don’t have your health in mind.

Here are some common artificial sweeteners to avoid:

• Saccharin (Sweet'N Low, Sugar Twin)• Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)• Acesulfame potassium or ace-K (Sweet One, Swiss Sweet, Sunett)• Sucralose (Splenda)• Advantame• Neotame (Newtame)

So what should you take away from all this? Don’t trust the packaging. Understand that they spend a lot of money figuring out ways to sell you their products. Always be skeptical. Your best bet is to stick with whole ingredients that haven’t been processed. Buy meat from the butcher. Buy fruits and veggies from the produce section. If it has a nutrition label, avoid it. Yes this means you’ll have to learn how to cook. It also means you’ll save a ton of money on food and be healthier than you’ve ever been before. People have this idea that eating healthy is expensive. Buying processed foods that appear to be healthy is expensive. Buying whole ingredients is cheap!

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Week 1

Recipe Roundup Roasted Veggies Italian Chicken Skillet Paleo Shrimp Scampi

Chicken Wings Mahi-Mahi Sous Vide Chicken

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2lbs of Mahi Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix of dried thyme, oregano, garlic parsley ( or really,

anything you think will work ) One tablespoon of olive oil

Juice from 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 400-425 degrees.

Mix the olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning. Brush Mahi

with mixture and into the oven it goes for 20-25 minutes

2 1/2 lbs chicken wing drummettes

- 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder - 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

- 1 teaspoon paprika - 1 teaspoon dried oregano - 1 teaspoon Kosher salt or to

taste. If using regular salt, use less

- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder - 1/2 teaspoon cumin

- Light sprinkle of pepper - For an extra kick you can add

1/8 tsp cayenne Mix all together very well.

Preheat oven to 450F Rinse chicken under cold

water. Pat dry, add 1 tablespoon olive oil - just enough to moisten the

chicken. Sprinkle mix over chicken

wings making sure they all get coated.

Arrange wings on wire rack or cookie tray

Bake for 35 minutes turning once (I did them in the air

fryer instead: 350 for 25 mins)

Week 1

Broiled Salmon Fried Bananas Grilled Chicken

Breakfast Oats

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Sliced banana, a little bit of coconut oil, and cinnamon.

Grilled chicken w/ roasted butternut squash and kale.

Marinade - (equal parts EVOO, Worcestershire,

balsamic vinegar. 1 tblspn stone ground mustard)

Butternut - coat w/ ghee, salt and pepper.

Roast 400-425 for 30-40 min. Add oiled and salted kale to

roasting pan for 2-4 minutes

1/4 cup oats 1 scoop SFH vanilla Pure

Whey 1 tbsp Chia and Flax seeds 1-2 tsp cinnamon to flavor.

1/4-1/2 medium apple chopped (Fuji, Gala)

Mix dry ingredients and then warm 1/4 unsweetened almond milk to cover dry ingredients. I have eggs on the side as well.